Meet Jackson Troe

Meet Jackson Troe

written by Jackson Troe

Hello! I’m Jackson, the newest Designer at Appsky! I am very excited to be working here and loving it already! My job here will be making the front end of our websites and apps look as good as possible using my skills in graphic design and illustration to make excellent layouts and eye catching branding!

Background

I was born just outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota but my family moved to Omaha when I was three, so it’s safe to say Omaha is my home. From a young age I’ve had a huge appetite for information that’s persisted to this day. As a kid it was mostly directed at learning about animals. Books about birds, bats, and dinosaurs held a large chunk of my attention, but as I grew older the family computer began to attract more and more of my interest. It’s there that I started playing with old design software like Macromedia Freehand and early versions of Photoshop. I also goofed around making early geocities websites with very, very basic HTML, but I wouldn’t come back around to web design until my college years.

Along with chasing after new and exciting dinosaur facts, I loved cartoons. I grew up in an artistic household, so I had art supplies at the ready as I imitated the art and characters of what I was on Cartoon Network in the early 90s. Video games were also an early interest of mine and I could get lost for hours exploring and chasing after the challenges presented in those old cartridges.

Education

My interest in art, animation, and video games won out over the dinosaurs, so early on I pursued an education in illustration with the hopes of one day putting it to use in making my own cartoons or as development assets for video games. I took every art class offered in high school and when I graduated I attended a joint program between the University of Nebraska Omaha and Metropolitan Community College relating to electronic imaging, or the practice of drawing and painting with a computer screen, rather than canvas and brush.

It was at UNO that I began to figure out that my interest in the traditional arts was waning where I was getting only more fascinated and proficient with the now vastly improved design and production software that I’d toyed around with as a kid. It would take a few years and hoping from a fine arts major to an animation major before I figured out that everything that I was fascinated by in cartoons and video games was in their design. The choices that go into creating a cohesive look and feel so that everything works together and encourages a specific reaction in the audience, as it had with me, was what I wanted to do. I’d been circling the graphic design drain for a long time, and just hadn’t noticed it. Once I figured that out, I quickly committed to the graphic design program at Metro and loved it.

So, then what happened?

Through this program I found that a lot of my love of character design coupled well with creating logos and branding, effectively designing the character of a business or organization, with the logo mark as it’s face. Additionally my interests in designing an experience and guiding interaction from video games had the same ideas reflected in UI and UX design for websites and apps. Design has been incredibly fun and challenging, and I get to see my work out in the wild like I wanted as a kid. I’m very glad I found it.

Anything else?

With my life story out of the way, all that’s left is to talk about my hobbies! I still love cartoons and videogames, and I can still recite an overabundance of animal facts. I love movies and film. I love Tarantino movies, a trait I share with our other designer Evynne. Thrillers and crime movies are my favorite with David Fincher being my number one director. I also read in bursts and enjoy the works of Vonnegut, Steinbeck, and Orwell as well the more modern Neil Gaiman.

That’s it!

You made it to the end! Thank you for reading this and if you’d like to reach out you can send an email to jackson@appskylabs.com. Thanks again!

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